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| Sunday, May 26, 2013 |
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I think that there should be four 5-7 minute talks and that sacrament meeting should finish on the hour (this is based on my plan for a 2.5 hour block instead of 3) and that bishoprics should not be shy about bumping the fourth speaker to the next week if the previous speakers go over their allotted time. |
We always always always have youth speakers, which I think is a good idea. If you don’t develop that talent a little bit when people are young, it will be much harder when they get older. One or two youth speakers and at least two adult speakers, plus a musical number of some kind is the optimum, I think. |
I think 4 speakers. 2 Youth, a musical number or good rousing hymn and 2 adults of any gender and we are good. |
My ward has taken to having two speakers with no musical number or intermediate hymn, and the speakers still always run over. I think the ideal would be a youth speaker, two adult speakers, with a musical number between the adult speakers, and with everything ending on time. The poor Gospel Doctrine teacher hasn’t had the full time to teach in a very long time (though he ends up running over, too). |
One speaker, 10-20 minutes, finish early, go home. (We have sacrament meeting last, at the end of the block) |
If we only had 5-7 minute talks then we’d only get to hear people’s personal biographical histories, how the bishopric member asked them to give a talk and the stories of how they met their spouses. We’d never actually get any “preaching.” For most talks it takes 5 minutes to just get past the introduction – “For those of you who don’t know me, my name is…” In response to which I want to scream, “Brother Jones already gave us your name when he introduced you!” |
2 speakers. one youth for about 5 minutes, one adult for about 20 minutes. I can dream. |
On Sunday we had a perfectly adequate meeting. Until the very end. We had 3 speakers and a long special musical number. The high councilman gave a nice, mostly interesting talk and finished and a perfectly responsible 5 minutes after the hour. Plenty of time for the closing song and prayer and still end on time. But then the counselor in the stake presidency, who had been sitting on the stand, decided he needed to grace us with his words of wisdom (none of which added in any way to what had been spoken). In fact, he basically drove the spirit away because everyone got ticked off that the meeting went 10 minutes overtime… Ugh. |
AT last! For once, I can happily report my ward does this right. 1 youth speaker (if you had two every Sunday, it wouldn’t take long before kids refused to participate because each kid would have to speak 6 times a year)1 female speaker, 1 male speaker and a musical number. Now, as to the content of said talks…..well, I complain about how boring our Sacrament Meetings are all the time. |
I am in complete agreement with Yet Another John. There should be one excellent speaker. Their remarks can go on for up to 20 minutes as long as they maintain their excellence. Then the meeting should be over. If the highlight of the meeting is the sacrament why do we insist on removing the focus from that ordinance with an unending stream of mediocre speakers? Are we trying to drive away our short attention span youth and those that don’t care to hear someone rambling? Why do we place such value on so-so oratory? |
Three speakers means that single people get to participate, too. Two speakers means that only married couples get to speak, because the bishop or counselor can get his program by making a single phone call. That’s why single people are almost never asked to pray in the wards I’ve lived in. As for going overtime, it doesn’t matter whether there are two or three speakers. One of them always takes far, far more than her share of time. I haven’t been asked to speak yet where my 20-minute talk didn’t have to be pared down to 4-12 minutes because the first speaker(s) took all the time. I don’t know why, when a 10-minute assignment approaches 40 minutes, that the bishop doesn’t get up and put an arm around the speaker, thank him for his talk, and lead him back to a seat. |
“That’s why single people are almost never asked to pray in the wards I’ve lived in.” Ardis, in my ward, the Exec. Sec. just goes through the ward list alphabetically. Everyone gets asked to pray in sacrament meeting in order of their name, without fail, every time he goes through the list (about every 18 mos), no special rules, no exceptions (except of course if someone is inactive or disfellowshipped or something). Your last paragraph is very apt. A GA who came to my mission said once that if you are asked to speak for a certain amount of time, you should speak for one minute less than that amount. No more, no less. To do otherwise is an enormous discourtesy. I have never seen a bishop actually guide someone back to their seat, but I have seen signals of various types being used. Everything from a polite clearing of the throat to tugging on the back of the clothing. |
Ardis (11), I can’t remember the last time we had a couple speak together in my ward. It was probably when our bishop was called and on his first Sunday (the first Sunday after the ward was formed) both he and his wife spoke, along with his counselors and their wives. |
The same goes for prayers too. |
I don’t really care how many people speak as long as they stick to their assigned time. I don’t mind when sacrament meeting goes over when I’m the nursery leader though. Having a woman speak last is nice too. The only ward I’ve ever lived in that never went over time was the ward with sacrament meeting last. We even got out early a few times. |
We have Sac. Mtg. last and we never get out early, but usually we get out on time. If a speaker ends early the bishop will get up and fill the time. I can’t stand that. |
Brother Coffinberry and sixteen-year-old Coffinberry Son 3 spoke Sunday in our ward, with another sister (not Coffinberry) in between. (Sister Coffinberry spoke last December.) The meeting ended precisely on time, the speakers talks (on the same-old same-old topic of Repentance & Forgiveness) didn’t overlap yet supported and built on each other without prior planning. So, I must live in a perfect ward, no? |
I want to know how “less that 1″ got almost 10 percent of the vote. |
Ardis, The last three wards that I have lived in have made explicit efforts to not have couples open and close a meeting. The only reason people don’t get called on to pray in my current ward is if they have said that they will never do it. The exec sec tracks how many times people have prayed in the last several years in order to make sure it gets spread out evenly. Frankly and enormous amount of effort goes into making it “fair” in some way. Also surprising to me is the fact that about 40 percent of the active members of our ward flat out refuse to pray in sacrament meeting. |
I’m amazed. I figured the ideal meeting would be Pres. Uchtdorf showing up and speaking the whole time. |
Sometimes I won’t pray. It scares the crap out of me, arj. Sometimes it’s not “I won’t” as much as “I simply cannot.” The bishopric influences the length of the meeting time. If they are “religious” about stopping on time, regardless of how many speakers, it works out better for everybody. |
My wife’s grandfather, as a bishop, would get up and walk out of meetings, including sacrament meetings, that ran past their allotted time. |
I, as a regular person, get up and leave meetings when they are supposed to end. So far, it has had little to no effect on meetings being more likely to end on time. But the nursery staff really appreciates it. |
It doesn’t matter to me when the meeting ends or how long it goes. If there were something else I had to take care enough, I would just leave early if needed, but there almost never is. |
Once on my mission the branch president got up at the close of the meeting and spoke for 25 minutes. A family we had baptized was there and as usual they had called a taxi to pick them up since they didn’t have a car. The taxi arrived on time and the meter was running during the branch president’s monologue. The family didn’t dare get up and leave for fear of offending him and the other members. They were living in poverty and this taxi ride was a major expense for them. I was furious. Afterwards I explained the situation to the branch president and he was apologetic. Since then I’ve always thought it was wise to end meetings on time or early because you have no idea if you are creating a problem for someone else. |
I hope someone can top that last one. I’d like to hear a story about an investigator who needed to leave for a dialysis appointment, but the meeting ran over, so that poor person sat there and died. Anyone? |
My family was killed by terrorists because a sacrament meeting ran long and I was unable to meet their ransom demands in time. Damn Mormon Standard Time!!! |
I, as a semi-regular, but mostly whacked person, also always get up and leave when a meeting is supposed to end. I also regularly validate sullen teenagers with “church is really boring, isn’t it?” (Just another reason I’ll never be in YW). |
We were recently in a ward where sacrament meetings routinely ended a little bit early. Not too early – but they almost never ran overtime. It was not a bad thing. I think the MCQ-cited tip about speaking for one minute less than the amount asked is a good one. I’m going to add that to my list of good ideas to live by. This past Sunday I gave the final talk in a 3-talk meeting and went about two minutes over my allotted time. So I have some repenting to do. :) |
There is no worse feeling than having a speaker get up with 5 minutes to go–holding a stack of papers and scriptures and realizing they’re determined to give their whole talk. My inner child starts to sob right about then. |
In my ward, the Bishop asks the members who are not teaching classes to stay in the chapel for 2-3 minutes after the closing prayer to give the teachers a head start. We are not supposed to leave until he stands up to leave and, believe or not, everybody respects this request – even if the meeting runs long. In fact, I love it when the meeting runs – because it usually means a mercifully short Elder’s Quorum lesson. |
My wife works presently in the library. She’s never not left a sacrament meeting 5 min before the scheduled end. Just pretend you work as librarians! |
I’ve come to realize that in the ward I attend with my spouse (when we’re not busy attending other wards–we like to visit family on the weekends) only certain topics ever go overtime. 1) Repentance. Anything to do with praying and the sacrament always runs overtime since some sap can’t stay on topic or keep his mouth shut about personal experiences with the process. 2) Any sin that is generally generated towards the youth. IE: Anything to do with sex and dating, or can be compared to the power of electricity (I swear, if any more people compare sins with a light bulb I might literally scream in my pew.) 3) Lastly, if a new bishop or some other “high up there” guy is called. And shockingly, I’ve realized the scheduling of these topics are almost impeccable. Has anyone else noticed meetings that go over time seem to have more people in them? |
I haven’t noticed that trend. We just have some long winded speakers. Recently one of my best friends was scheduled to speak after this guy I’d never heard speak before. My friend is a good speaker and I figured it would be interesting. But the guy preceding her chose to speak for oh–I think 40 minutes. And it was so boring. Now, my friend and I have had our moments with other, but I love her like a sister–what’s more, I know her. And I knew she was mad. I also knew she had too much class to make the meeting go over. She got up, bore fervent testimony for 5 minutes and it was over. I can’t believe that guy did that and it makes me look at him differently. I think people who think what they have to say is so important and special that it doesn’t matter how long they take are going on God’s special list. I hope I’m on the committee that gets to slap them. I have been in meetings where a hapless soul just doesn’t know how to stop talking. They’re suffering, we’re suffering. That’s torture. I finally had to leave a funeral for that reason. People in the back row were snickering. Really destroyed the spirit of grieving. |
The best calling is the clerk who has to count attendance. Once he goes out in the hallway to count, he just never comes back… |
hahahahahahaha…. i’m having such a good time reading the comments… i must say i agree with #21 “The bishopric influences the length of the meeting time. If they are “religious” about stopping on time, regardless of how many speakers, it works out better for everybody.” i’m seriously not a fan of things that go over the inspired time! and my little branch is famed for going way over time… it’s not uncommon for the church to end at 12:30pm. the BP is dilligent to start at 9am but somehow he loses the plot during the meeting… so i guess to answer the question, i’d say two speakers… people in this small town ramble too much! my friend knows a Bishop in a nearby stake who frequently tells people to vacate the pulpit if they speak for too long… he even times testimony meeting! big ups to that bishop… here is his reason: he’s rather offend you than offend the Lord… |
No matter how many speakers there are, and IMHO the more the merrier, the meeting should end on time! My grandfather was the Bishop in his ward for many years, and every month when the high councilmen came to speak he would turn the time over to them with this caveat: “Brethren, we will be pleased to hear from you until 5 minutes after the hour. You may continue to speak beyond that time if you would like, but we will have our closing song and prayer at that time regardless.” |
37, Love your Bishop’s solution. My wife is a big believer in sticking to the time limit. In fact, last time I gave a talk… By the way, when your bishopric member asks if he can talk to your wife about giving a talk, never remind him she just spoke 6 months ago…anyway, I digress. My wife actually sat in the audience and timed me and signalled me when I had 5, 2, and 1 minute left. I am proud to say that I didn’t go over. |
